RE: Richard Dawkins Faith In Memes Is As Blind As A Christian's to God
July 13, 2010 at 11:54 am
wiki: Dawkins defined the meme as a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation, but later definitions would vary. The lack of a consistent, rigorous, and precise understanding of what typically makes up one unit of cultural transmission remains a problem in debates about memetics.[12] In contrast, the concept of genetics gained concrete evidence with the discovery of the biological functions of DNA. In the context of the exact sciences, memetics suffers in comparison because, unlike the idea of genes, memes do not necessarily have or need a concrete medium in order to transfer.
'memes do not necessarily have or need a concrete medium' is another way of saying 'we don't know for sure whether or not memes need a concrete medium'. the reason they use the word 'necessarily' is because they can't use the word 'definitely' because they don't know. like i say, they do not talk of memes as merely an abstract concept, but as a unit, making it measurable; making it a science. they are still trying to define what one unit of a meme is, and have come up with nothing concrete yet. i would then make the probably arrogant claim to suggest that there are people working on finding out what one unit consists of. so that is why they are looking for it's version of DNA.
and why don't you cough up where dawkins says that a meme is nothing more than a concept? cough up where dawkins says it in an entity without physicality?
'memes do not necessarily have or need a concrete medium' is another way of saying 'we don't know for sure whether or not memes need a concrete medium'. the reason they use the word 'necessarily' is because they can't use the word 'definitely' because they don't know. like i say, they do not talk of memes as merely an abstract concept, but as a unit, making it measurable; making it a science. they are still trying to define what one unit of a meme is, and have come up with nothing concrete yet. i would then make the probably arrogant claim to suggest that there are people working on finding out what one unit consists of. so that is why they are looking for it's version of DNA.
and why don't you cough up where dawkins says that a meme is nothing more than a concept? cough up where dawkins says it in an entity without physicality?
